Needs convincing: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Republican)
What: REUTERS
The bill to avert the US default has cleared an important hurdle in the House of Representatives. The responsible committee cleared the way for a vote on the cross-party agreement. But the vote was extremely close.
Dhe hard-fought compromise in the debt dispute between the US government and the Republicans cleared a first hurdle on Tuesday. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives Rules Committee voted 7-6 to bring the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling suspension bill to the entire Chamber of Congress for a vote on Wednesday. Some of the arch-conservatives among the 13 members of the committee had previously announced that they wanted to torpedo the bill.
Now the Senate is also supposed to deal with the bill, which could possibly take until the weekend. Republicans control the House of Representatives, while Democrats control the Senate.
MEP calls compromise “excrement sandwich”
The agreement was reached between US President Joe Biden and the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy. In the USA, however, there is no faction compulsion. This was preceded by weeks of tough negotiations between the two parties, which even prompted Biden to cancel trips abroad.
In the committee on Tuesday, the members of the right-wing group House Freedom Caucus in particular initially opposed the compromise. They are demanding more spending cuts. “I’m going to kill this bill any way I can,” Republican Ralph Norman said. His colleague Chip Roy has openly berated the design as a “turd sandwich”.
If both chambers have received the draft in identical form, it is submitted to the President for signature. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned of default if the bill is not passed by Monday. Such a payment default is likely severe consequences for the creditworthiness of the USA and weigh on the global economy as a whole.